Strange boot up Zorin OS 9...

Well not exactly strange but different...

I'm trialling Zorin OS9 and in the last couple of days when I boot up the OS I seem to have lost the usual blue screen with the big Z in the middle that appears while the system is booting up. Instead I get Zorin OS9 in small white letters and a progress bar underneath followed by some writing which to me makes no sense... It eventually boots up to the normal desktop.

On shut down I get this writing again and the system finally shuts down.

This never used to happen and I don't 'think' I've done anything that might have caused it but presumably I have.

As far as I can see the OS is working normally once it gets to the desktop. it just looks messy when it's booting up...

Any help from the experts would be greatly appreciated. I can always re-install if necessary - what takes most time is setting up the browser - and getting rid of that awful Zorin start page !!!

Sorry should have enclosed my PC's specs.

Dell Dimension 9150
3Ghz dual core cpu
4 Gb ram

Hi, I think it might have been due to an update or something, but I am not too bothered - that is what I have with my rig but by choice - I chose 'GDM' manager after installing Gnome DE instead of 'LDM' (GDM=Gnome Desktop Manager, LDM= Light Desktop Manager). I have not looked at restoring to the glowing Z. I do have Ultimate and that comes with a Plymouth theme manager - does your version have that?

Hello swarfendor437, thanks for your mail.

Now I'd not thought of any updates 'breaking' the OS - but you might have something there...

I did have two instances of Zorin OS9 running side by side on my hard drive and thought that somehow that might be causing a problem so I re-installed about an hour ago but the problem remains. Now the disc that i installed from has worked perfectly before so that should not be the cause. Also I've done precious little to fine tune Zorin except select the appropriate nVidia driver, selected XP from the 'look changer', adjusted the screen display to 1024x768 (I'm partially sighted so bigger icons make life easier...), selected 'sea' as my desktop and installed & configured Midori as my browser. All things I'd done previously with no issues so maybe your suggestion that the problem is caused by a recent update may well be right.

I can't remember the writing that appears - in any event it makes no sense to me - but I seem to remember seeing the word 'Plymouth' in there somewhere...

It would be nice if this could be fixed, previously when it booted it had the blue screen and the big Zorin icon in the middle. Maybe a forthcoming update will put things right...

Thanks again

Hi, it could be the screen resolution issue - perhaps Zorin realises that you need 1024 x 768 which I think is to low a resolution for Plymouth to run. You may want to take a look of the tour I did of what is available for accessibility in Compiz settings - here is my video:

https://vimeo.com/57264420

I too am having the same problem. When I used the "generic driver" that came with Zorin OS 9 it booted with the nice screen. I installed a new nVidia video card and am now looking at that UGLY boot screen. Can someone at Zorin come up with a fix?

Swarfendor437 - thanks for your posting.

I've had a look at your video - lot of good stuff there but I don't 'think' there's anything relevant to my problem.

I've tried all four video drivers and they 'all' produce the messy start up/shut down - but not always. I've re-installed a couple of times and can't reliably replicate the problem.

I did have a problem with the screen freezing up whch had disappeared, now that's back again this evening - this is the THIRD time I've typed this. Also now I seem to have lost all the icons that sat at the bottom right hand side of the screen.

I still have XP running on another hard drive, I really can't let anyone lose on Zorin at the moment as it's so problemmatical...I had hoped it would work out of the box but realistically I suppose some of the MS offerings also needed tweaking, so I'll persevere.

Thanks again for your help

When I boot up the computer Grub comes up giving me the choice of Zorin OS 9 or Windows 7. Ever since I installed my nVidia GeForce card, the grub menu is much larger than I was used too. Then I get the very ugly boot menu when I boot to Linux. Maybe those of us who paid for the premium edition can ask for help on this issue. I just need to find the email I received when I bought it and register...Also, I can try booting off various other distro using a dvd and see it if looks funny. It doesn't affect my sessions with Zorin, but it sure is annoying....

Hi, you could try and use the EasyBCD method - that way your mbr never gets affected and you just have two simple boot options - Windows or Zorin.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6075

If you paid for the Premium version I would have thought the Zorin brothers would have a database of clients - if not I would be shocked! I would PM them.

And the answer is here .... http://www.binarytides.com/ubuntu-fix-nvidia-graphics/ ... this was supplied by the outstanding support given by Zorin if you purchased the premium version. As I suspected, when I changed the video driver from the default to one supplied by nVidia, it caused this problem. But there is a fix! Thank you Zorin for your help.

Hi Bob, many thanks for your contribution - 600 blue jewels to you sir! Await the OP to respond.

Going back to the taskbar on the right issue - may I respectfully suggest another way forwaed?

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7983

OK, Got my Z back by doing this:

1. Menu | System Tools | Zorin Splash Screen Manager - now not sure if this is in Core but is present in Ultimate:

Screenshot Splash.png (22.49 KiB)

Select 'Change Default Theme' then go to Zorin Folder and select zorin.plymouth: